


the path of a life

by snowdarkred



Category: Lie to Me (TV)
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Coming of Age, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-29
Updated: 2011-12-29
Packaged: 2017-10-28 10:08:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/306751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowdarkred/pseuds/snowdarkred
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The twisty life of Eli Loker, human lie detector.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the path of a life

This is the life of Eli Loker:

Eli Loker grew up in an empty house. His father went to work before he woke up, and his mother didn't rise from bed until after he'd gone off to school. He spent his weekends wandering around the downtown area, looking in antique shops and tattoo parlors and bumming cigarettes off of college students. At school, he was no one, and at home, there  _was_ no one. He once went a whole week without saying anything, just to see if he could.

(Eli Loker was a boy who loved his social experiments, probably because he was always on the outside looking in, and it was the perfect position for observation.  _It was easier_ , he told himself,  _than the alternative_  – but really, he had no idea what the alternative actually was.) 

No one noticed, and that was when Eli Loker decided to get as far away from this life as he could before it tore him apart from the inside-out.

 

\---

 

This is the life of Eli Loker, college student:

He made friends, which was surprising. He hung out with them between classes, when he had a spare moment. They were low maintenance; they didn't mind that he was always running off to work or class. He refused to use his parents' money, which meant that his life was reduced to a dance between low paying waiting jobs, scholarships, and student loans. He did his time in the trenches, slogging through research papers and asshole customers, and he did it all with the same fake smile on his face and the same fake bounce in his step. He was a man of mystery to all around him, full of paraphrased philosophy and diligent hard work. A modern day Thoreau, live and in the flesh.

He was a lonely kid with no time on his hands to think about how lost he was without his parents there to prop him up. That unavoidable fact burned him to the core and made him rage inside, and he just smiled, like he hadn't a care in the whole damn uncaring world.

 

\---

 

This is the life of Eli Loker, college graduate:

Life was even harder off campus, where he had to worry about even more bills and societal bullshit. He lived paycheck to paycheck, while staring at his bank account, wondering how the hell he was going to pay off his loans. The restaurant he was working for went under, leaving him unemployed. He crashed with a friend for a month, found out that the friend was into some seriously creepy shit online, called the police, and was right back to being homeless again. He was constantly hungry, constantly on edge.

He knew things had hit critical mass when his car broke down and he didn't have the funds to get it fixed. He just couldn't do it anymore, and even though he hated himself for it, he did the only thing he could do: He called his parents.

 

\---

 

This is the life of Eli Loker, brief regression:

He was ready to disappear into the night within three measly days. He  _hated it_  in that house, hated everything about it, from the pointless possessions to the even more pointless air of superiority. He watched as unfinished food was thrown away, as human tragedies were shrugged off, as his parents continued to wrap themselves up in a blanket of oblivion, and it drove him mad with anger. Everything, from the polite lies to the arrogant waste, filled him with disgust and disappointment.

Eli left soon after and as suddenly as he came, leaving his room once again just as he left it. The sad, impeccable hallways bid him farewell for the last time.

 

\---

 

This is Eli Loker, reborn:

He quit lying entirely, or as close to it as anyone got. Radical honesty. It worked for him, and it was a relief after years of repressing emotions and thoughts and anything that could be construed as improper. He had nothing to hide now, and while that didn't make him invincible, it certain as hell made him better than his empty origins.

 

\---

 

This is Eli Loker, intrigued:

There was an article online about a man who could read faces. Cal Lightman. Doctor Cal Lightman. He read about it on the crappy public library computers, since he'd sold his laptop for five hundred dollars and a place to sleep for the night. Cal Lightman said that he was interested in hiring inquisitive minds looking to explore human nature, anyone bright enough to handle the raw truth of humanity.

Eli drove to DC the next day.

 

\---

 

This is the life of Eli Loker, hired:

“Look, I'm not actually looking to hire someone right now, alright? That was just a line to the paper, you know how it is.” The man never stopped moving, never stopped twitching and turning in place. His eyes never rested, and they never landed on Eli for more than a second before flickering away again. Like he was bored.

“I don't care.”

“Well, mate, you should care. Seeing as I'm not going to pay you anything, that is.”

“Yes, you are.” 

“What are you, some kind of fortune teller? No, I'm bloody not.”

“I don't lie.” Radical honesty. It cost him a number of friends and aquantances (more like, almost all of them) but he will stick to it. Because this was how he could get in.

“Pull the other one.”

“Look at me and tell me I'm lying. That's what you do right? I. Don't. Lie.” Finally, _finally_ , he looked.

“...Bloody hell," Lightman said, still twisting and turning but finally, _finally_ , looking at him. "Hm. I wonder how long your little honesty streak is going to last, Pinocchio.”

“As long as it takes.”

“I'll right. Let's find out then, shall we? You're hired, for the time being. Now, what expression is on my face right now? C'mon, you've got to be faster than that!”

 

\---

 

This is the beginning of the life of Eli Loker, human lie detector.


End file.
